1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a lace knit and its knitting method. More particularly, the invention relates to a lace knit comprising: a plurality of wales formed in a vertical direction of the lace knit by chain-stitched warp yarns; a plurality of courses formed continuously by needle loops of the warp yarns disposed in a lateral direction of the lace knit; and a plurality of sinker loops formed in the needle loops of the wales so as to form a ground weave in the form of a net allowing insertion of a plurality of insertion yarns such as weft yarns and/or pattern-forming yarns therein. The invention also relates to a method of knitting such lace knit comprising the step of chain-stitching a plurality of warp yarns so as to form, with a plurality of operational cycles of a lace knitting machine, a ground weave including a plurality of wales formed in a vertical direction of the lace knit by chain-stitched warp yarns, a plurality of courses formed continuously by needle loops of the warp yarns disposed in a lateral direction of the lace knit, and a plurality of sinker loops formed in the needle loops of the wales.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional lace knit of the above type is shown in FIG. 8. In this, a plurality of wales 1 are formed side by side of chain-stitched warp yarns 4 in a vertical direction of the knit, and a plurality of courses 2 are formed continuously in a lateral direction of the knit by needle loops of the warp yarns 4 disposed side by side, and also a plurality of sinker loops 12 are formed in the needle loops 11 of the wales 1 for allowing insertion of a plurality of weft yarns 7 therein, so as to together form a ground weave in the form of a net including the plurality of wales 1 interconnected with each other. To this ground weave, there are further interwoven a plurality of pattern-forming yarns 9 for forming an ornamental lace pattern so as to complete a lace knit 10.
The above-described ground weave of this lace knit 10, as shown in FIG. 9, typically comprises a net in which the wales 1 and the weft yarns are knitted with a uniform gauge over the entire width of the lace knit (e.g. 24 gauge; the needle bed includes 24 needles per inch (25.4 mm) and the yarn guide block also includes 24 guides per inch (25.4 mm)). FIG. 9 is a weave knitting diagram showing the weft yarns also. More particularly, as shown in FIG. 10, a lace knitting machine for use in knitting the illustrated lace typically comprises a raschel knitting machine including a knitting section 24 having a needle bed and a plurality of guide blocks, a take-up roll 25 for taking up the lace knit 10 knitted by the knitting section 24, a ground beam 21 for feeding ground yarns 3 (including both warp yarns 4 and weft yarns 7) to the knitting section 24, an elastic-yarn beam 22 for feeding an elastic yarn 6 and a plurality of pattern-forming yarn beams 23 for feeding a plurality of insertion yarns 5 such as pattern-forming yarns. In this application, as will become apparent from the following detailed description, what is referred to as "insertion yarns" means any of non-warp yarns to be inserted across the wales 1. More particularly, the term "insertion yarns" employed herein refers to any other such non-warp yarns as weft yarns 7, pattern-forming yarns 9, and so on.
Typical usage and arrangement of the guide blocks in the knitting section 24 are shown in FIG. 11. The ground beam 21 feeds the warp yarns 4 and the weft yarns 7 as the ground yarns 3. For knitting the respective yarns in the lace knit 10, there is provided a group 30 of ground-yarn guide blocks which include, in the order from the front side of the machine (the light-hand in FIG. 10 or left-hand in FIG. 11) a warp guide block 31 for guiding the warp yarn 4 for forming the wale 1 and weft guide blocks 33 consisting of an ordinary weft guide block and a special guide block capable of adjusting traverse movement of the weft yarn 7. Thus, the warp guide block 31 and the weft guide block 33 together constitute the ground yarn guide block group 30. And, behind this ground yarn guide block group 30, there are arranged, one after another, a plurality of pattern-forming yarn guide blocks 29 for the pattern-forming yarns 9. Then, at the last position, there is disposed an elastic-yarn guide block 32 for guiding the elastic yarn 6 into the wale 1.
With the lace knit 10 knitted according to the above arrangement, the elastic yarns 6 are located on one side of the ground weave and at the lowermost portion of the knit. An example of such lace knit product knitted in the above-described manner is shown in FIG. 12. As shown, in this knit, both pattern-forming portions 17 and a net portion 13 are provided as basic-gauge, densely knitted weave portions 14, and the pattern-forming yarns 9 used therein are thin, thus the ornamental lace pattern formed thereby lacks depth or swelling from the ground weave.
In the case of knitting scheme according to a uniform gauge as described above, it may be still possible to employ thick yarns as some of the pattern-forming yarns 9. However, it is difficult to form a thick lace knit similar to as the so-called leaver lace, since the ground weave and the pattern-forming yarns consist of the yarns of uniform thickness along the entire width thereof. For instance, for knitting a raschel lace knit knitted under 24 gauge, typically, pattern-forming yarns of about 78-133 tex (700-1200 denier) are employed. Then, if it is desired to employ, instead, thicker yarns of about 145-178 tex (1300-1600 denier) in order to achieve a thicker pattern. This will be extremely difficult due to such restrictions as the inter-needle spacing in the needle bed, the inter-guide spacing of the yarn guides, the feasible traversing amount of the guides, etc. In particular, when a conventional raschel knitting machine is employed, as its weft guide blocks 33 are operated by a single traverse mechanism, it is impossible to vary the traversing amount of the weft yarn 7 in the width direction (the lateral direction in FIG. 12) of the lace knit 10 for providing different traversing amounts in individual width-wise segments of the lace. With lace knit products in general, it is commonly believed that the more densely and three-dimensionally knitted, the more desirable and of better quality. Then, in the case of the above-described conventional construction, even if some of the warp yarns 4 are set to the warp yarn guide block 31 with twice larger gauge spacing than the others, such desirable lace knit product cannot be produced.
Then, in order to provide a lace knit having a desirable thickness or depth at desired portions thereof by inserting thick yarns therein, the present inventors conducted extensive and intensive research and development to achieve this object, considering also the possibility of partial modification of the existing raschel knitting machine for this purpose. As a result, the present inventors have succeeded in inserting insertion yarns having twice greater thickness than the yarns forming the basic-gauge weave, thus producing such lace knit having desirable increased thickness at a portion thereof (e.g., insertion of a thick yarn of 145-178 tex (1300-1600 denier in a lace knit knitted with both 24 gauge and 12 gauge).
Therefore, the primary object of the present invention is to provide a lace knit having massive or voluminous texture and a method of manufacturing such lace knit by making it possible to provide desirable increased thickness at a portion of the lace, cause the ornamental pattern thereof to rise proud from the ground weave of the lace and also to insert a thick yarn therein.